WBCBL Basketball

The Baltimore Cougars Legends basketball program will hold tryouts for a new women's development league team this month.

'This is the first team we're going to have in Maryland,' said Tamara (Rogers) Moore, the director of the Baltimore Cougars Legends, 'but everyone from my coaching staff and me have already run a team before. My coaching staff is coming from the Asheville Jaguars from the same league, so they have experience in the this league already.'

Players must have college experience and be 20 or older to play on the team that will be part of the Women's Blue-Chip Basketball League. Tryouts will be held Nov. 19 from 9 to 11 a.m. and Nov. 20 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Leadership Through Athletics Inc., 2900 Hammonds Ferry Road in Lansdowne.

'It's a competitive tryout, so it's just like a WNBA tryout or overseas tryout. They're going to be competing the whole time,' said Moore, who helped Milford Mill win a state championship her senior year in 2005.

The Women's Blue-Chip Basketball League is a developmental league that offers players the chance to be seen by scouts from professional teams in the United States and overseas. The league includes players from all levels of college as well as former WNBA players and others who have played professionally.

The season runs from mid-May to early August.

While the WBCBL provides the opportunities, players are on their own if offered a professional contract. According to the league's web site, about 1 in 60 players in the league were offered professional contracts in 2014.

The Georgia Soul overcame a 13 point fourth quarter deficit to defeat the defending WBCBL champion St. Louis Surge 64-63 Sunday in the league's national championship game. The win was the Soul's third of the weekend in an eight team tournament which featured Women's Blue Chip Basketball League region champions from California, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Louisiana. The championship game, played on the Surge's home court, kept the capacity crowd on its fee... [read more]

The Georgia Soul overcame a 13 point fourth quarter deficit to defeat the defending WBCBL champion St. Louis Surge 64-63 Sunday in the league's national championship game. The win was the Soul's third of the weekend in an eight team tournament which featured Women's Blue Chip Basketball League region champions from California, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Louisiana. The championship game, played on the Surge's home court, kept the capacity crowd on its feet and the Soul's faithful fans in Augusta glued to the live web stream.

Khadijiah Cave (6'3''-C-95), the former Baylor University and Laney High star, garnered tournament MVP honors after scoring 14 points and grabbing 21 rebounds in the championship game. The rookie center who will soon head to Switzerland to further her professional career calmly sank two free throws with 1:16 remaining that put the Soul ahead for good at 64-63. LaCoya Terry (5'10''-F-87, college: E.Carolina), a first team WBCBL All Star last season, led the Soul with 18 points, including 9 in the fourth quarter. Terry, who excelled at East Carolina and before that Hephzibah High, let out a huge yell when her three point play tied the game at 60 with 2:31 remaining after she stole the ball near half court and teammate Morgan Jennings (5'8''-G-89, college: Auburn) found her for the score.

But it was former Francis Marion and Laney High star Eboni Fields (5'5''-G, college: Francis Marion), another returning All Star, who ignited the comeback. Every time the Soul's prospects seemed hopeless, Fields gave the team life. When Georgia trailed 50-37 with just over 9 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, she nailed a three from the left corner, making it 50-40. One minute later she dribbled over a high screen and drained another bomb from the top of the key, cutting the deficit to 50-45. And what turned out to be her biggest shot came with 2:42 remaining when her three from the left wing cut the Surge's 60-54 lead to 3 points just seconds before Terry's steal and three point play made the score even for the first time since 0-0.

Fields scored 12 points, making 4 three pointers, all in the second half. She explained Monday how she was able to maintain her confidence after failing to make a field goal in the first half:

I was being very hard on myself the 1st half because my shots were not falling. At halftime my teammates and coaches kept telling me keep shooting. We believe in you they will fall. Don't think about it; just shoot. After I saw the 1st shot go down it helped pick my confidence up to just shoot how I know how. My teammates found me and I was grateful they fell when it was needed.

In an interview with another outlet, Terry also talked about the way the players stuck together through the adversity of trailing throughout the first three quarters. Their resilience paid off and made for a satisfying finish to the organization's second season in which the Soul finished 15-3 and capture the attention and excitement of a large portion of Augusta's basketball fans, who followed along on the webcast (see here) and celebrated on social media for many hours afterward.

Large and enthusiastic crowd on hand at Fontbonne for today's national championship game at Fontbonne pic.twitter.com/1B68vfCDz3- Earl Austin Jr. (@earlaustinjr) August 6, 2017

2017 WBCBL National Champion Game St. Louis, MO Wow, what a game! It all came down to the wire with an unpredictable ending. The 2017 WBCBL National Championship game was between defending powerhouse champs, St. Louis Surge vs. second year prodigy, Georgia Soul. From the tip-off, St. Louis Surge jumped out to an early lead, in which, they held for the duration of most of the game. The Surge lead by as many as 14 points, but once the 4th Quarter hit, the Georgia Soul started to get their... [read more]

2017 WBCBL National Champion GameSt. Louis, MO

Wow, what a game!It all came down to the wire with an unpredictable ending. The 2017 WBCBL National Championship game was between defending powerhouse champs, St. Louis Surge vs. second year prodigy, Georgia Soul.From the tip-off, St. Louis Surge jumped out to an early lead, in which, they held for the duration of most of the game. The Surge lead by as many as 14 points, but once the 4th Quarter hit, the Georgia Soul started to get their groove going and went into a defensive and offensive frenzy. With 4 straight defensive blocked shots, the Soul started a huge momentum swing that renewed their fight. The Soul's defensive efforts lead to the Soul's Ebony Fields (5'5''-G) and Morgan Jennings (5'8''-G-89, college: Auburn) scoring on the offensive end.

With 1:45 left to play, the game was tied 60-60 with both teams fighting to survive. On the ensuing possession, the Surge took charge once again by nailing a big 3-point basket to retake the lead 63-60. Georgia Soul's LaCoya Terry (5'10''-F-87, college: E.Carolina) quickly answered by driving to the lane to cut the Surge's lead down to 1, 63-62.

Defense came up big again for the Soul to give them another scoring opportunity with the time winding down. Georgia Soul's Khadijiah Cave (6'3''-C-95) drew a fouled inside and was sent to the line for a pair of free throws. With only 17.2 seconds left to play, Cave swished both free throws, all net, and the Soul reclaims the lead 64-63.

Surge inbounded the ball and immediately put the ball in the hands of their sharp shooter Rebecca Harris (5'8''-G-86, college: Illinois). Harris takes the time to look for an opportunity to seal the deal with a final shot. With 6.0 seconds remaining in regulation, Harris made her move by driving to the elbow for a stop and pop pull-up jumper. The shot rims out and back into Harris' hands for a second attempt, with only 2 seconds left and the crowd on their feet. Harris gets off her shot over her defender as the buzzer sounds, the ball rolls around the rim for what seemed like minutes and slowly falls off the to the right. Georgia Soul Wins 64-63 and is crowned the 2017 champions of the WBCBL.

Congratulations to all 2017 National Tournament Participants, Officials, Host.... Job well done!

For Saundra Brown, owner and player for the Toledo Threat, the inaugural season in the Women's Blue Chip Basketball League has been a success.
'This is my vision, Brown said. 'This is my dream and something I wanted to be able to bring to the city of Toledo. I actually own the team, and I'm a player too, which the league allows you to do. I've played in the WBCBL about four years ago.
Brown is a Start graduate and played at Detroit Mercy in college [read more]

For Saundra Brown, owner and player for the Toledo Threat, the inaugural season in the Women's Blue Chip Basketball League has been a success.'This is my vision,' Brown said. 'This is my dream and something I wanted to be able to bring to the city of Toledo. I actually own the team, and I'm a player too, which the league allows you to do. I've played in the WBCBL about four years ago.'Brown is a Start graduate and played at Detroit Mercy in college. She has helped construct a roster full of former Toledo-area standouts, with a large group of former City League players.Shareese Ulis, a former Waite standout and current Threat player, said she and Brown have stayed in touch since their CL days.With a consistent group of former city players, Brown and Ulis have been playing together at open gyms for many years. When Brown, Ulis, and the others challenged the Detroit Dodgers, a WBCBL team, to a scrimmage for charity, some of the Detroit players urged Brown to create a WBCBL team.'Some people reached out to her and asked her if she wanted to create a semi-pro team,' Ulis said. 'Since she in the past had that idea and passion, she went with it and got everything she needed to start it, and then she had tryouts. 'With us playing regular pickup games all the time, we already had that connection.'Brown said Toledo has supported women's basketball for a long time, and she is excited about the fan turnout in the first season.'Honestly, it's been amazing,' Brown said. 'I'm speaking from the fan support that we have had. 'Our games have been pulling in at least 200 to 300 people, and our last game we were just shy of 400. It's almost as if the city has been waiting for something like this. Women's basketball was so huge in Toledo back when I was playing in 2005 at Start. Just seeing the fans coming to the games and engaging is amazing.'The WBCBL is recognized as a developmental league. It helps to showcase players for opportunities to play professionally overseas and, in some cases, the WNBA. Brown said the WBCBL has seen about 600 of its players sign professional deals.'Pretty much the goal for the Toledo Threat is to provide an opportunity for those players in the Toledo area who are coming out of college and might not be getting the looks to play overseas,' Brown said. 'They can come and try out for the Toledo Threat.'If they are good enough, we will put them on the team, and develop them, and get them ready so that they can go overseas and get the looks they are looking for.'For Ulis, who graduated from Waite in 2007, she is using the opportunity with the Threat to help provide an example for young girls in Toledo.'This, for me, is not about playing overseas,' Ulis said. 'For me, it's just a great platform to give back to our city, especially coming from the era of basketball that we played in when most of our games on any given night were sold out. You don't see that anymore.'It's just a good way to show our young girls that we've been through what you've been through, and there is a platform for you to continue to play basketball.'The Threat have been slowly introduced into the league with an eight-game schedule. They are 2-2 this season and have one more home game at 5 p.m. Saturday at Start High, followed by three road games to close out the regular season. With more than 40 teams in the WBCBL, Toledo has a regionally focused schedule.Toledo is in the Northeast Division, along with the Detroit Dodgers, Grand Rapids Galaxy, Cleveland Crush, and Louisville Fillies.The Threat has had two home games at Start High and two at Toledo Christian.Brown said they charge $5 for admission and offer giveaways and promotions for the home games.Brown said she hopes the team will settle on a permanent home site by next season, and hopes the schedule expands.The demand for the product in Toledo has been there. As far as the quality of play, Ulis said they have gone through the normal struggles of a new team, but are coming off a 91-84 victory against Louisville.'I think as with any other team just getting started, you have those little kinks that you have to work out with team chemistry and figuring out what type of team you are going to be and finding an identity,' Ulis said.'I think this past game, we were able to put some things together and actually play a full 40 minutes with an identity. The first three games, we were trying to figure that out, and I think this past game, we kind of got it, so hopefully we can build off that.'

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